We’re following up June’s True Soul party with a special one for Kourosh’s Back From The Brink anthology: On Sunday, August 21st, from 3 until 8 pm, Egon, Finders Keepers’ Mahssa and friends will be playing nothing but Iranian and Mediterranean psych grooves as the Palate folks roast an entire lamb, serve up Iranian specialties and pour rosé wine specials….
We’re going to be selling our Back From The Brink album and we’ll have a small number of a $40/4 CD “Psych Funk Sampler” for sale.
Little more than a week after highlighting our True Soul: Deep Sounds From The Left Of Stax anthologies as “Must Have Reissues,” The Sunday Times has done the same for Kourosh: Back From The Brink. An excerpt from the review:
“… Two recent compilations of Iranian psychedelia, Pomegranates and Raks Raks Raks, suggested hidden deposits, but this double disc set is the motherlode..”
If you didn’t know, both the 2CD and 3LP volumes are in stock and shipping at Stones Throw’s webstore, and our 4 x 7″ box set will be available everywhere good music is sold on Back From The Brink‘s official release date of August 23rd… next Tuesday!
Read: The Sunday Times on Kourosh: Back From The Brink.
Buy 2/CD: 2 discs in a hardbound 52-page book full of liner notes, full annotation, rare photos and ephemera. Note: CD version contains songs not available on vinyl; text is in English only.
Buy 3/LP: 3 records housed in a 2-panel jacket and comes with a download card for all audio and also a 28-page book full of liner notes, full annotation, rare photos and ephemera. Note: CD version contains some songs not available on vinyl; text is in English only.
Buy 4×7” Box Set: Exact reproductions of the 4 picture-sleeve 7” singles Kourosh released before the Revolution, housed in a magnet-clasped box and comes with a 44-page book full of liner notes, full annotation, rare photos and ephemera. Note: text is in English only.
With the exception of those that we shot for Brazilian superstar Seu Jorge and those that our Swiss friend Dimlite occasionally assembles, we infrequently present videos here at Now-Again. And, with the exception of the True Soul Revue TV Pilot from 1973, which provided the fodder for our True Soul bonus DVDs, we almost never have footage from our reissue projects.
Which makes this 1977 video for Kourosh’s “Niyayesh” – uncovered and restored by our friend Dario Margeli at irannostalgia.com – that much more amazing. Yes, it’s a simple video: Kourosh, on a Tehran sound stage, lip synching the words to a song about one man’s amazement of life’s wonders and what will happen to him after his passing. But “Niyayesh” was one of the last videos Kourosh filmed before the Islamic Revolution occurred. Thus, its a wonder that this footage survived at all – and we’re left with a fleeting image of the artist in his prime.
Buy it here
Original sessions produced by Conrad O. Johnson.
This anthology produced by Egon.
Art direction by Matt Rowland with Trevor “Karma” Gendron.
Restoration and remastering by Dave Cooley.
CD Tracklist:
Disc One:
1. Boss City
2. Burning Spear
3. Take Five
4. Super Bad
5. Keep Doing It
6. Thunder Soul
7. Do You Dig It, Man?
8. Headwiggle
9. Do Your Thing **
10. Scorpio **
11. Thank You **
12. Al’s Tune
13. All Praises
14. Shaft
15. Kashmere
16. $$ Kash Register $$
17. Zero Point – Parts 1 & 2 (45 Version) *
18. Getting It Out of My System
Disc Two:
LIVE RECORDINGS (all previously unreleased):
1. Intro
2. Zero Point
3. All Praises / Zero Point (Reprise)
4. Intro
5. Do You Dig It, Man?
6. Don’t Mean a Thing
7. Thank You
8. Ain’t No Sunshine
9. Do You Dig It, Man?
10. All Praises
ALTERNATE TAKES:
11. Thank You (45 Version)
12. Zero Point (LP Version)
13. Do Your Thing (Instrumental)
14. Getting It Out of My System *
LP Tracklist:
Side A:
1. Boss City
2. Burning Spear
3. Take Five
4. Super Bad
5. Keep Doing It
6. Thunder Soul
Side B:
1. Do You Dig It, Man?
2. Headwiggle
3. Do Your Thing **
4. Scorpio **
Side C:
1. Thank You **
2. Al’s Tune
3. All Praises
4. Shaft
Side D:
1. Kashmere
2. $$ Kash Register $$
3. Zero Point – Parts 1 & 2 (45 Version) *
4. Getting It Out of My System
Side E:
1. Intro
2. Do You Dig It, Man?
3. Thank You
4. Ain’t No Sunshine
5. Do You Dig It, Man?
6. All Praises
Side F:
1. Thank You (45 Version)
2. Zero Point (LP Version)
3. Do Your Thing (Instrumental)
4. Getting It Out of My System *
* previously unreleased
** previously unissued extended version
* previously unreleased
** previously unissued extended version
DVD:
The DVD contains the shorts “Texas Jewels: The Making of Texas Thunder Soul,” by B+ and Flying Lotus, “Kashmere Stage Band on Jazz: Yesterday, Today, Forever,” and “Prof. and his Band: A Documentary by Charles Porter.”
2CD/DVD, 3LP/DVD. 2011. NA5085.
Download high res cover art here.
The Sunday Times just declared our True Soul: Deep Sounds From The Left Of Stax anthologies as “Must Have Reissues.” An excerpt from the review by:
“… Arkansas’ True Soul is a label worth discovering. It favoured a rough-and-ready sounds and artists who were not destined to become household names. Thomas East (No? Me neither) gets four tracks – all gems.”
Download Thomas East’s “Slipping Around” below, and then read the full review. And, if you didn’t know, both CD/DVD volumes – and our deluxe 4 LP box set – are in stock and shipping at Stones Throw’s webstore and available everywhere good music is sold/
Read: The Sunday Times on True Soul: Deep Sounds From The Left Of Stax.
Buy: True Soul, Deep Sounds From The Left Of Stax
Download: Thomas East “Slipping Around” (45 Version).
